Zeta leader tied to U.S. agent's death may face trial in Houston

Mexico may extradite gang leader in agent's deathZeta chief was arrested shortly after the attack on 2 Americans

DUDLEY ALTHAUS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published
5:30 am CDT, Tuesday, May 17, 2011

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government has begun extradition proceedings against the alleged ringleader of gunmen accused in the February slaying of U.S. federal agent Jaime Zapata.

Mexican police served a new arrest warrant late last week to the already-jailed Julian Zapata Espinoza, nicknamed "Tweety Bird," in anticipation of formal extradition petitions from Washington, Mexico's attorney general's office announced Tuesday.

Once a formal U.S. request is received, a Mexican federal judge will decide whether there are grounds to extradite Zapata.

"This sort of extradition process can sometimes take years," cautioned Rocio Torres, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, though she added that the cases usually are completed in months.

No comment

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on the process. U.S. officials usually don't comment on extradition matters until they are completed, a spokesperson at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City said.

Julian Zapata, who is no relation to the slain U.S. agent, and 11 other alleged members of the Zetas criminal syndicate were arrested late February in the northern city of San Luis Potosi after a lightning-fast investigation actively supported by the FBI and other U.S. agencies.

Investigators say the Zeta gunmen ambushed Jaime Zapata and fellow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Victor Avila as they drove in an armored U.S. embassy SUV on the main highway linking Mexico City with the Texas border.

Whether Zapata and Avila were attacked because they were agents remains unclear.

The U.S. agents identified themselves as U.S. diplomats after the gunmen forced them off the highway, officials have said. But the detained gunmen reportedly have said they mistook the agents for members of a rival gang.

The agents' vehicle was of a kind favored by Mexican narcotics gangs. The gangsters' frequent carjackings of SUVs and double-cab pickup trucks have made travel perilous in much of northern Mexico.

No longer unthinkable

Once all but unthinkable, extraditions from Mexico to the United States have become commonplace since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006. More than 400 people have been sent north since, including a handful of top crime bosses.

Among the first extradited by Calderon was Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the kingpin who formed the Zetas - originally veterans of the army special forces, or deserters - in the mid-1990s as his personal bodyguards and enforcers. The Zetas are now waging a brutal war against Cardenas' former gang, known as the Gulf Cartel, across northeastern Mexico.

After pleading guilty to drug-trafficking charges in a Houston federal court and agreeing to cooperate with U.S. agents, Cardenas is scheduled to be released in 13 years.